Two Bridgeport businesses team up for National Donut Day

BRIDGEPORT >> What happens when a baker and a brewer combine their talents for a special occasion?

Not surprisingly, you get a doughnut that tastes a little like a beer and a beer that tastes a little like a doughnut.

With Suzy-Jo Donuts, a bona fide Bridgeport icon, and icon-in-the-making Conshohocken Brewing Co. teaming up on some mash-ups between beer and doughnuts for National Donut Day on June 2, the results were both unpredictable and gratifying, noted Kevin Love, head of operations for Conshohocken Brewing.

“We gave Suzy-Jo a bunch of beer and they gave us doughnuts for our beer, which we started making about a month ago,” Love explained. “We went to their shop and experimented with Suzy-Jo doughnuts one day, trying different doughnuts and eventually we figured out what worked. And then our brewers made a recipe that is light in body and is perfect with doughnuts. We put their doughnuts into the batch of beer. It’s a clear beer and you won’t get a chunk of the doughnut in it, but it will have the doughnut flavor. I’m excited about it.”

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The limited-time-only doughnuts and beers will be in the spotlight at the Conshohocken Brewing Co. Bridgeport location, 3 DeKalb St., beginning at 3 p.m. Friday.

The listing of pairings, as provided by Love, includes the Island in the Sun yellow cake doughnuts topped with cinnamon sugar, matched up with Island in the Sun Double IPA; a yellow cake doughnut topped with Motherload Russian Imperial Stout chocolate frosting, paired with Motherload and a glazed vanilla cake doughnut topped Glazing Saddles and paired with Glazing Saddles Ale.

“We have a limited amount of the beers,” allowed Love, who added that the pub’s menu will feature a doughnut burger in honor of the momentous occasion: Glazed & Confused, a char-grilled burger, topped with pork belly, sharp American cheese, caramelized onions on a Suzy- Jo’s grilled glazed doughnut.

As with all the regular doughnuts, production of the beer-infused doughnuts will begin in the wee hours of Friday morning, noted Suzy-Jo owner Ray Barkmeyer.

“We’ll be selling them Friday morning, and we are making a limited amount of them,” he explained. “We’re jumping on the bandwagon for National Donut Day and it should be good.”

The intoxicating concoctions, which will be sold Friday morning at the Bridgeport location, 49 E. Fourth St., aren’t quite as intoxicating as one might think, Barkmeyer said.